When running Puppy from optical disc any additional software or data may be written to one's personal save file located on any partition. If such data is desired to be stored on the same optical disc from which one is running Puppy then one would need to create a special MultiSessionLiveDVD.

To create a live disc it is recommended to use DVD+R discs. D.V.D. has a superior specification than CD. DVD+R is superior than DVD-R. Re-writable media may be used (DVD-RW or CD-RW). It is essential to use high-quality media from manufacturers such as Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim.

The downloaded container file must have the extension .iso. It is an exact copy, or image, of an existing file system. To ensure that the file is downloaded completely without corruption use the wget command, e.g.:

wget -c /puppy-version-location/puppy-version.iso

(If wget is not used then one should verify its integrity by checking its MD5sum). This ISO file may then be written to a blank optical disc using a particular software program. It is by booting up with this disc in the optical disc drive that one can run and use Puppy Linux.

For a computer to boot from a live disc the optical drive must be read/accessed before the H.D.D. is; therefore when the optical disc is in the optical disc drive at boot up it will load Puppy Linux from that drive only and no where else. If the computer does not start/boot from the live D.V.D. it will be necessary to either access a boot menu or the B.I.O.S. so that the computer is instructed to boot from the optical disc drive and not any other drive; re-starting will be necessary in conjunction with using the correct key(s) (see Appendix from here).

Being able to boot from a live D.V.D. also means that it itself may be used to boot the computer when it is not possible to do so with a flash memory drive or hard disk drive: the computer boots from the bootloader on the optical disc but loads the frugal save file (or operating system) from either the flash memory drive or hard disk drive.